Unbroken

He stopped mid-step, shaking his head. He was thinking about this all wrong. His mother wasn’t the hard one to sort out in all this wild mess.His father.

If his father ever suspected Leo hurt her…

He supposed Hunter could do it. He could risk it all—Leo loved Hunter like a brother, but he wouldnotrisk his own neck like Hunter was so prepared to do. He could not be so impulsive.

In truth, there were other ways to go about this. Again, he could protect Skye. He could have her followed, make sure she would always be safe. Yes, this seemed like the best option, acleanerone—

But one that might come back to his father. Would that asshole allow his resources to be spent on her? No, he wouldn’t. He would want to know why he was guarding agutter ratwhen Leo was already betrothed to another.

See, this was more complicated than it needed to be.

He stopped and looked up at the sky, not seeing the stars but the darkness between them.

“You know there’s no other way,” Hunter said quietly, coming alongside him.

He was starting to realize that.

“She doesn’t know Rick hasn’t done it,” Leo mused now. “I wonder if she’ll greet me when I come home like nothing happened.”

“What do you think?”

His cheeks heated with anger. “She will. She’ll smile at me, Hunter.”

“Will you smile back?”

Now Leo glared at Hunter. “Why the hell would I smile back?”

Hunter didn’t look perturbed by the snarl. “Because you’re playing a part. That’s why you’re so likeable. You win everyone over with your charm. You put on that face, the face with no eyes, the face without a smile, a blank looking face that honestly makes my skin crawl. You’re always playing a part, Leo. Since the start.”

“You think I like to?”

Hunter shrugged one shoulder. “I think one day you won’t know how to stop.”

Leo didn’t answer. Didn’t want to confront that notion. Not right now. Not while Skye was hurting, and his scheming mother was responsible for it.

To top it off, in the recesses of his mind he was considering Hunter’s offer to murder her for reasons he was not entirely comfortable to admit to himself. He preferred the illusion that killing her meant Skye was safe—

Weak. Weak. Weak.

Leo wanted to hurt himself.What was wrong with him?

“I kissed her,” he admitted suddenly, body tensing as he prepared for the onslaught. “She didn’t do it first, either.”

“When?” Hunter bit out.

“In the car on the way here. I tasted her blood on my tongue and everything.”

Hunter just watched him, his lips pressed together. “Why the fuck are you telling me this?”

“We made a promise we would.”

“I mean, why now?”

Leo shrugged. “Because you needed to know—”

“You want me to hurt you,” Hunt cut in, face unreadable.

“That was the deal.”